Chamber president lashes out on Facebook

A reader alerted us to a Facebook post on the page of Pete Bardunias, president of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, which serves more than 1,000 local businesses and organizations and is the fourth largest chamber in the Capital Region. The comment was posted on his page here, and was there when I checked Tuesday evening. I copied and pasted it without making any changes. What do you think?

“OK after my weekend away from the news I am going to say that I am extremely upset with the actions of the President of the United States today. He is using 20 dead children as pawns to further his political aim of gun control. Those bodies werent even cold yet on Friday when he stood before the nation, supposedly wiping away tears (yeah we saw Clinton do that too) and said he was going to take measures to prevent these tragedies. No he is not. He is going to take measures to exert his influence on society. I really dont think he gives a damn about our kids.
Also, as the parent of an Asperger’s child, I am equally incensed at the media for portraying the shooter as some innocent misguided kid who got his hands on Mommy’s guns, showing this 7 year old photo of him everywhere they can just like they did in the Trayvon Martin case. Adam Lanza was a 20 year old man, old enough to fire a gun in defense of his country had he so chosen. He had no business being in an elementary school. He alone is responsible for his actions. And I WILL NOT have my son and every other Asperger’s child cast in the light of this piece of human garbage that wreaked horrors on that CT school on Friday, nor by his accomplice, the President of the United States.
Does the above sound harsh? YOU BET IT DOES. I really was hoping intelligent adults would be taking control of this issue and the discussion. Instead it’s all hype about guns and misguided children, and bureaucrats all jockeying to position themselves as heroes. The whole thing makes me sick.”

24 Responses

I never quite get the way so many right-leaning people seem to refuse to give the president any credit whatsoever, or allow him to possess even a shred of humanity. How anyone could watch the president fight back tears at the first press conference about the tragedy and come away thinking he doesn’t “give a damn about our kids” is beyond me. The man is a loving father of two children, at least the GOP should be able to give him that, right? Sorry, Mr. Bardunias. It’s not the president trying to exploit a tragedy to “exert his influence on society.” For the first time in my life, I see Americans of all stripes practically begging for him and Congress to do something to restore sanity to our gun laws. How many Americans think assault weapons belong on our streets and maladjusted and/or mentally ill people should be able to buy endless rounds of ammunition? Let’s take a poll and find out. That’s where true democracy lies. It’s not with a small minority of shrill, threatening types who intimidate the rest of us by waving their weapons around and claiming the Constitution gives them the right to brandish whatever instruments of destruction they choose. You pro-gun types brought this moment on yourselves by refusing to ever compromise or be realistic about our gun laws. Now 20 kids are dead and you, Mr. Bardunias, look to Obama for blame? Absolutely unbelievable. Blame yourself. What is the best way to boycott the Saratoga County Chamber, who is represented by this guy? I’d like to know.

Whenever tragedy strikes, it is the President’s duty to represent the nation. The Newtown shooting crossed a red line in the eyes of the public. Indeed, the President’s words are very measured when compared with the comments expressed by so many parents.

Even the preliminary remarks by the NRA on Tuesday show they recognize that the status quo can not continue. It remains to be seen what constructive proposals they will announce on Friday. In recent months, we have had mass shootings in theaters, malls, churches, colleges, and now an elementary school. I do not know the best solution, but the major parties need to fix it quickly.

Quite frankly, Mr. Bardunias should reconsider whether his opinions accurately reflect the thoughts of the Saratoga County business community.

I read it when he posted it and it was and is way out of line! He has a right to his personal opinion but as the Chamber President this was absolute poor judgement. I don’t agree with him and many do not as well. He is supposed to represent all of the Chamber members and business community. Maybe he didn’t examine the results of the recent election but our President was given a mandate. Mr. Bardunias is off base and out of line. Not a very professional move for sure. He owes a lot of people an apology but I doubt that will come. You can tell a lot about a person by the things they write. I’ll not be joining this Chamber as was my plan for 2013.

Mr. Bardunias’s post was highly inappropriate, unprofessional, and shows a true lack of judgement. Those characteristics are not what I would be looking for in a leader, or to have represent me and/or my business.

Mr. Bardunias, as well as all of us, are entitled to our own opinion on Newtown, but how you go about expressing that opinion is very telling. Blasting his 1500+ “friends” with his vitriol shows such poor judgement, as I can only assume that many of those “friends” are actually members of the COC.

It’s time for Mr. Bardunias to either apologize or step down. The members of the Chamber should accept no less.

It looks like the FB page where this was posted (it appears to have been deleted) is his own personal FB page and not the chamber’s, although there is a lot of chamber news on the page. The distinction is important because I think that that people have a right to share personal viewpoints on FB and in other media, however extreme those opinions seem.

I do not agree at all with his characterization of President Obama or most of the rest of this rant, except for his thoughts on people with Asperger’s. The media has repeatedly reported that the Newtown shooter had Asperger’s, leading many to wonder if that is the reason for this hideous event. There have been few studies about the connection between autism-spectrum disorders and violence but they have pointed away from any connection between autism and violent behavior.

Yet that is not the conclusion one could draw from the coverage of this event, which is highly unfortunate.

Since I am the subject of this blog post I wish to respond – first of all let me say please do not in any way condemn the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce nor its fine president Todd Shimkus for these comments – he had nothing to do with them and I humbly apologize to Todd and my colleagues for inadvertently drawing them into this conversation. Please dont make this a conversation about the business community, these are hard working people trying to make our region a better place.

Secondly, those comments were placed out there by me, as a private citizen and parent of an Aspergers child. I was very upset that a portion of the American populace would be cast in such a terrible light by not only the shootings but the reaction of many of our leaders. I made a serious mistake in implying by poor choice of wording that the President somehow was complicit in the shootings, that was not intended and was totally wrong on my part. I was trying to say that he was helping to cast Aspergers children as incapable of avoiding violent behavior. I corrected the record on a subsequent Facebook post but that is not recorded here. The other night I chose to speak out as a private citizen and parent. These are challenging times for all and emotions run high everywhere, including mine.

For those offended by the remarks, again I apologize, and I’ll be happy to talk to anyone about their concerns. Please call me at 914-671-2433 or email at pbardunias@aol.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks for sharing, Pete. Sounds more like a drunk tea party rant than an attempt at Aspergers awareness. Trayvon Martin? The president doesnt care about our kids and was an accomplice? This is pure madness. Hopefully you give your child move love than this drivel implies your capable of. Good luck with the aftermath of this poor decision.

Mr. Bardunias is obviously part of the problem we are dealing with– a right winger who has an irrational hatred of the President, who said nothing about Asperger’s as far as I can tell. Instead of twisting the words of the President to satisfy your own preconceived notions about what he said why don’t you do a search and watch the videos and judge the actual words said and how they were said? I know that isn’t how right wingers roll, but there is a real world outside of the Fox/Rush conspiracy wingnuttery.

For all of you asking for a ban on guns please when you’re finished with a ban on guns please, please start a ban on drugs as they kill far more people a year then guns…………….Oh wait drugs are already banned……..How’s that working out?…………..

For the record……………Ban on Booze failed……….Ban on Drugs……currently a colossal failure……………but yes by all means follow the same failed strategy and lets us know how shocked you all are when this fails as well.

FYI – NY City and Detroit have some of the most restrictive laws concerning guns …………..How’s their gun violence rate compared to other less restrictive large cities? I’ll give you a hint………CLOSSAL FAILURE.

Insanity thy name is all you calling for more and more of the already failed laws………..Good idea left wingers.

You, Mr. Bardunias, have made Asperger’s an issue here. not the President. I heard that the killer was referred to in the media as having Asperger’s, but that is all. However, you have taken this opportunity to rant and rave at the President, using your child’s affliction as a crutch. That is vile. Your apology sounds more out of exigency than contrition.

#12 Stephen – Your argument does not make much sense. First, I haven’t heard any politician talk about banning guns, semi-automatic guns yes, but not all guns.

Secondly, there is no ban on booze – unless you are talking for those under 21??? As for drugs, and booze for that matter, the people that are mainly killed are the users themselves – not innocent bystanders, and certainly not 20 small children in a matter of minutes, or 12 people in a movie theater.

If any of you haters knew Pete you would know he is not at all what you think he is, that being said I would like to also point out that this was posted on his FB page,not the chambers,so whichever of his “Friends” notified the paper,you are a despicable sack of Human feces,and not worthy of the friendship of such a hard working Man who strives everyday to make our community a better place to live.
Pete Bardunias post may have been offensive to some (not Me),but they are his opinions on his page,while we are stomping on the second ammendment,we might as well crush the first,oh yeah lets not forget the fourth which the patriot act has also managed to circumvent,its all fine until its your rights that get get attacked.

Nobody is stomping on Mr. Bardunias’ 1st amendment rights–he freely wrote what he wanted to, and others are now exercising their 1st amendment rights to say they think the statement was both false and hateful. The 1st amendment doesn’t protect you from criticism for saying something that a lot of people don’t agree with.

People who post on FB take the risk that their posting will be read by far more people than their FB friends. People who do not want their personal opinions shared beyond their set of friends have a choice: don’t post on FB.

The very best thing about social media is we can share our feelings and opinions with the world in a moment. The very bad thing about social media is that when we take a moment to convey our feelings and opinions they are usually disseminated in a tone of passion and can send a message that really wasn’t intended. As a Canadian, I’m quite certain and believe wholeheartedly that there isn’t one sensible American who really blames the President for the actions taken by an individual who is now being reported as having mental issues that were maybe unattended to, and equally I’m sure there isn’t anyone in any country or any community who has not been emotionally moved by the occurrences in Newtown. And in the end, there isn’t any intelligent human being who wouldn’t want something to happen, that would eradicate these types of events. We would all agree anyone who would support otherwise, may be the type we want to watch. I also agree with the statement that guns don’t kill people, people kill people, however it is really about the people who would kill people and what we as society give them access to in order to kill. Giving the rights to one, always infringes on the rights of another because of the fact we all have differing opinions. The right to living a long and prosperous life for 20 babies was taken away in order to have the right to have a gun. The right to living isn’t a privilege it is a God given right. The right to own a gun should be a privilege not a right, a privilege you earn a right is gifted. In Canada, it is estimated we have 11 million guns with 35 million people. In the US it is estimated you have 350 million guns with a similar total population. In North America 26.2% of the population has a form of mental illness, thankfully most not serious. So given those statistics, its safe to say there is about a 30% chance of a Canadian with a mental illness having access to a gun, which is still not comforting to me. However in the United States, based on statistics one could conclude there is a 100% change an American with a mental illness may have access to a gun. Regardless of your opinion or feelings with respects to this issue, it is advocating our responsibility as participants in a humane society by not being sensitive to the fact that some how, some way we must eliminate senseless tragedies like this. Would that be amending the “privilege” to own a gun in order to protect the “rights” for another to have a long and productive life? Maybe, but more importantly it is about creating a society that is as free from violence as possible in order to create an environment where more are happy, more are wealthy and more are contributing. The President is right, something has to change to avoid more or this, and everyone’s opinion should be heard, accepted and understood as an expression of their passion. In the end the law-makers will maybe do something, we can’t expect them to do what each of us wants, it’s just nice when they actually do something. I’m an eternal optimist, I believe if we all think about it deeply, have compassion for our fellow human being, respect the fact that we will not all agree, appreciate others opinions, and have a clear understanding of what is best to protect our children, it may all workout. My 11 year old Daughter said to me Daddy will make sure a man doesn’t come to school and hurt me tomorrow. Obviously I didn’t give her a truthful answer, because the truth is, I can’t, only we can make sure she’s safe. Pete just expressed an opinion, a concern about his own child, an emotional and passionate comment, good for you Pete, lets all dialog, and in the end, hope we save our kids and not allow the 20 babies tragedy to be in vein.

I also applaude all who were brave enough to use their full names while giving their thoughts,its always easy to trash talk when you hide behind annonimity,I may not always be politically correct,but I stand in full veiw of the world with my opinions.

He’s the leader of a regional business association and his comments –Facebook or not– represent his business. Do you think if this was on Neil Golub’s Facebook page that people wouldnt be associating his views with Price Chopper??

Its very disappointing to hear a local business leader turn the CT tragedy into an opportunity to voice his obvious dislike for the President and the media. If I were a member of his Chamber, I would be calling the Board President for some serious conversations about the leadership and direction of that Chamber!

Peter Bardunias: if you believed that facebook behavior is private, that a nasty comment about the POTUS will be forgotten, that emotional rants will improve a situation, or that apologies will excuse behavior, i’m guessing that you made it into the southern saratoga county chamber of commerce without much of a background in business. how is that possible?

WOW, not only the post itself but the comments as well. I was a member of the chamber for several years and know Pete personally I am surprised to see he did that. This is not a forum for ANY ones political or social views, just ask that people have enough common sense to not judge an entire organization based off the misguided opinion of its leader. The Southern Saratoga Chamber is full of wonderful people whom do a lot of wonderful things for the community, the man made a mistake lets keep the torches and pitch forks away for a little while longer!